The End of the World
by RositaLG
Summary: A bday fic made to order for Sunsetdreamer. Zombies, Ingrid Michaelson, established relationship B&B. It makes sense, I promise. : Happy Birthday love! :


A/N: Most of you know that there are a few people on this site that are vital, not only to my writing, but to my daily life. Sunsetdreamer is at the top of both of those lists. I wracked my brain for an idea for her birthday fic that would be as fun as last year's game and I came back to our two favorite topics of conversation: Ingrid and zombies. So here it is: Birthday Fic 2012. What happens in 2012? The end of the world of course! I chose 24 words from my Zombie Fridge Poetry magnets to insert in here just for fun.

Because Sunsetdreamer likes established relationships and because I like playing in AU, let's pretend B&B got together upon their reunion in season 6. No Hannah, just two crazy kids who learned their lessons the hard way. And we'll put this one year after that date, whenever that was. *glares at Bones writers for lack of established timeline*

And to my dear Sunsetdreamer: There are no words to describe our relationship. That's why God gave us one brain so we would just know and understand each other. :D So I'm just going to say what's between us is ours and I hope that you have a wonderful birthday!

OOOOO

**End of the World **

_When the sun runs out,_

_And there's no one to save you,_

_Will you go to our favorite place,_

_And try to say goodbye?_

_At the end of, at the end of the world,_

_Will you find me?_

_Will you find me?_

_At the end of, at the end of the world,_

_Will you find me so that we can go together?_

**End of the World,** Ingrid Michaelson

"This would never happen!" Brennan pointed to the TV from her spot on the couch. "Even if it were possible for a virus to spread, people would never be infecte..." Booth sighed and paused the movie. As he turned to face her, his face was a mixture of annoyance and faked polite interest. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

"It's a zombie movie, Bones. 'The Mummy' isn't real, but you watched that one."

"Yes, but that's a classic." She argued. Booth just shook his head. "And the apocalypse motif in this movie is outlandish at best."

"What's wrong with the apocalypse motif?" Booth said, sticking up for his movie despite the fact that they both knew he had never once considered its motifs.

"Apocalypse myths were created to serve a purpose regarding morality and mortality. This? This has no moral ground. It's just people with shotguns traveling around the country, killing flesh-eating corpses who are trying to eat their brains."

"Yes! Hence its appeal!" Booth said. Brennan sighed and rolled her eyes.

"And for the record," she continued, "human bodies don't rot like that. In all of your years of working with me, have you ever seen a corpse that looked like that? Ever?" She asked him.

"Oh and talking mummies are just walking around, leading digs in Egypt?" Booth wanted to know. Brennan rolled her eyes. "They're not cadavers, Bones. They're _zombies_." He emphasized the difference. They both knew that they would never agree and neither one would back down so it was times like this that it was best to just stop talking.

"Do you want another beer?" She asked with a sigh, trying to change the subject. Booth looked down at the coffee table and shook his head.

"No, I'm good." He said. Brennan could tell he wanted to get back to the movie so she picked up the remote and hit play for him. She caught his pleased expression out of the corner of her eye as he pulled her closer towards him, silently appreciating her acquiescence.

As the movie progressed, Brennan watched with half-interest as the two lead characters crossed the barren landscape to find one another, killing and outrunning the undead all the way. Despite the movie's obvious flaws, there was something to be said for the dedication of the characters to find one another.

Perhaps it was Booth's ridiculous taste in movies but she found herself thinking something silly.

"If the world was ending, would you fight your way through zombies to try and find me?" She asked with a small smile, already knowing the answer to her ridiculously hypothetical question.

"You better believe it." Booth said without a second thought. "Zombies, mummies, monsters, you name it. I'm shooting my way through all of them to get to your front door." Brennan chuckled.

"You _are_ an excellent shot." She mused. "And with my knowledge of human anatomy? We would make a great zombie killing team."

"Oh, no question." Booth agreed. "So it's settled. If we ever get caught in an apocalypse and we're not together, we find each other and try to save the world. Deal?"

"Deal." She agreed as he sealed their pact with a kiss.

OOOOO

_Brennan found herself on an empty street, surrounded by abandoned warehouses decorated in graffiti. She didn't know how she got there, but she started walking down the street, interested in finding out why she was here. _

"_Booth?" She called out. Surely he had to be nearby. He was always nearby. "Booth, where are you?" She asked. She heard a rustle behind her and she turned around, only to come face to face with a zombie. She jumped back, surprised by the strange sight and heard a tired groan behind her. She turned and saw a group of zombies coming towards her. "Booth?!" She called out again, this time a bit more panicked. "Booth, I need you." She called out as she took off running down the sidewalk. She darted up a dark alley, just dodging a zombie's grasp as she turned the corner. When she looked up, Angela was standing in the alley._

"_Angela!" Brennan sighed in relief as she jogged closer to her friend. "We have to go. Zombies are coming. We have to find Booth." Brennan explained. _

"_Booth isn't coming." Angela stared at her like she was crazy._

"_Why not?" _

"_Sweetie, it's the end of the world. He's saving his family." She said as if it were common knowledge._

"_I'm his family." Brennan argued. _

"_You're his partner." Angela pointed out with a meaningful glance towards Brennan's left hand. Brennan followed the look to her own hand and then looked up again. Angela was gone. Brennan kept running, dead set on proving Angela wrong. _

"_Booth!" She cried. "Booth, where are you?" _

"_Dr. Brennan!" Hodgins ran up to her. "You've got to turn around. You can't go this way. It's not safe!" But Brennan pushed past him, running headlong down the street as fast as she could. She had to find Booth. She had to get to him. She had promised. _

"_Booth!?" She yelled. "Booth!" She finally spotted him standing next to a house that she recognized instantly, despite having never seen it before. It was obviously Rebecca's house. From the street, Brennan recognized the two blonde heads in the window, watching the scene anxiously from the safety of their home. Booth was stationed out front keeping watch, the rifle from his truck firmly in his hands. He hadn't come looking for her. He had broken his promise and she couldn't blame him for doing so._

_She felt a tug on her arm and she knew what was about to come. She kept her eyes on Booth, despite the fact that he didn't even see her. She tried to pull away, desperate to say goodbye to him, to speak to him one last time but the mob behind her was pulling her in. There was no escape now. She felt the hands grabbing every part of her…_

Brennan jolted upright, breathing heavy as she came to grips with reality. Booth was sleeping soundly, turned away from her as he faced the wall. She took a deep breath and counted to five, listening only to Booth's deep steady breathing. When she exhaled, she felt much better. It still amazed her how Booth's presence, even if he was only sleeping, made her feel at peace.

She lay back down and Booth must have sensed the shift because he turned over, his arm protectively wrapping around her waist as he came face to face with her. Brennan looked across her pillow at the man she loved so intensely and wondered if he had ever thought about getting married. He had never brought it up, which she now realized was strange. He had always spoken of marriage before they had gotten together. She wracked her brain, trying to think of a time when the subject might have come up but it never had. She was certain that he had skillfully avoided the topic for the past year because of her.

For the first time in her relationship with Booth, she found that she was annoyed with both of them equally: herself for not seeing the gap in their conversations and Booth for keeping his opinions on the subject a secret. What if he really wanted to get married but refused to ask for her sake? She closed her eyes. Had she been obliviously happy while ignoring his needs this entire time?

OOOO

Brennan spent the next week pondering her question and analyzing Booth's every move as she tried to ascertain if he was truly as happy as he appeared to be. Finally, her quest had led her here, to spend some quiet time alone as she finally made up her mind on the matter. She walked towards the familiar grave, knowing it well by now. She stood in front of it, inspecting it to make sure that it was clean before setting flowers down beside it.

"Hi Mom." She started, still completely uncomfortable with talking to a headstone, even after years of coming here. "I know that Booth believes that you can hear me but that's not why I'm here. I need to talk through something and since no one here can actually hear me, I'm going to just go for it." She explained. She took a deep breath. "I think I'm considering proposing to Booth." She let the unsettling sentence hang in the air, waiting to see what her own reaction would be to actually saying the words out loud. "I love him. I want to be with him for as long as possible. I just can't…I can't get over what that would mean for me." She paused to consider her next thought. "I like being self-reliant. Not that I want to be alone, I would always choose Booth over being alone," she verified "but we see the world very differently. Part of me thinks that if we were to get married, Booth would subconsciously expect our relationship to change in some way. He always wanted a traditional family, the kind that neither of us had growing up. Although he would never ask me for it." She knew it was true but the thought of Booth being unfulfilled because of her was heart-crushing. "Then again, maybe it's my responsibility to offer it without being asked. To compromise?" She was starting to get mixed feelings and that annoyed her greatly. "I just don't want him to expect the fairytale life that he has always dreamed about. I'm never going to be an obedient wife and I don't want that misconception to cause tension between us." She looked around for a minute, remembering the first time Booth brought her here. "I ran away from him for so long. I didn't want to destroy what we had back then. But now, marriage really wouldn't change anything in our daily lives." She realized. "We live together, we work together. We are at a place where we might as well be married for all intents and purposes."

Her cell phone began to ring and she knew that it was Booth wondering where she was, even before confirming with the caller ID.

"Hello." She answered.

"Hey, where are you?" Booth asked. "Cam said you left the office an hour ago."

"I brought some flowers out to the cemetery. I was just heading back to my car now." She informed him.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, hearing something extra in her voice.

"I'm fine. I just wanted some peace and quiet for awhile." She assured him.

"Time and space?" Booth asked.

"Exactly. I'm on my way home now. What do you want to do for dinner?" She asked.

"I'll whip something up." He offered. "Any requests?"

"Something with wine." She smiled, only half-kidding.

"Italian?"

"Sure." She knew his mind was already busy planning how to make her life easier tonight. He loved making things better. She was very lucky. "Booth?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you." She could practically hear the smile break out over his face at her words.

"I know."

"I'll see you soon." She hung up the phone and took one last look at her mother's grave.

"I think that this was helpful." She told the stone. "In the end, I think I just need to talk to Booth and see what he thinks." She sighed at the thought of _that_ conversation. "Wish me luck." She added as she started back for her car.

OOOOO

By the time she got home, Booth was busy in the kitchen with a flurry of activities going on around him. She heard his Rat Pack playlist that he loved to listen to while he cooked permeating the house.

"Wow, you've been working hard." She commented as she set down her purse and examined the various stations he had set up.

"Hi!" He said, his eyes alight with happiness. "I'm making eggplant parmesan." He said.

"My favorite." She smiled as she bent over the counter and kissed him, not wanting to touch him while his hands were covered in breadcrumbs.

"The wine is in the fridge if you want to help yourself." He nodded towards the other end of the kitchen as he washed his hands.

"Hmm, don't mind if I do. Do you want some?" She asked as she pulled two wine glasses down from the cupboard.

"I'll wait til I'm done." He said as he went back to frying the eggplant. "So, today: do you want to talk about it or forget it?" He asked as she sat down at the kitchen table to watch him work.

"There's not a lot to talk about. I was in meetings all day." She shrugged. "Lots of people, all with agendas."

"You missed the serenity of the lab." Booth smiled knowingly. "And how was the cemetery?" The question was a bit more veiled, but Brennan knew why he was asking. Very rarely did she go visit her mother outside of special occasions. For her to be there today, completely out of the blue, meant something and Booth knew it.

"It was fine." She replied.

"Do you feel better after going?" He asked.

"I do actually." She answered. "I always think better when I'm alone." Booth smiled and she knew that he disagreed with her definition of 'alone' but he held his tongue.

"Good. Then that's all that matters." He said. Brennan fell silent for a moment as she remembered her monologue among the dead.

"How was your day?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Good. Surprisingly quiet." He said with a smile, just to rub it in.

"You missed the chaos of the lab." She smirked, knowing they saw the lab completely differently. To her, it was a refuge: a place where facts were facts and everything was black and white. To him, it was a stainless steel playground filled with annoying squints and exploding spam.

"Let's just say that I was happy to have something to do tonight." He slid the casserole dish into the oven and set the timer. "Thirty minutes." He informed her as he turned around. He reached for the bottle of wine and filled his glass before leaning over and refilling hers.

"What did I do to deserve being spoiled like this?" She asked.

"Oh, I'm not spoiling you." Booth said seriously. "I'm trying to get you drunk." She laughed as they both took a sip of their wine.

"Why Agent Booth, what kind of woman do you think I am?" She asked coquettishly.

"Oh I know exactly what kind of woman you are." He promised as he let his hands stray towards her waist to pull her in close for the first time that day. Brennan felt her latest stress melt away at his touch and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to encourage the closeness. She buried her face in his neck and inhaled deeply. "Hey." Booth said as he pulled her off of him to examine her face. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked quietly.

"I will be." She said sincerely as she took his hand and led him toward their bedroom. She began undressing him slowly and Booth watched with interest as he tried to understand what was going on in her mind. He followed her lead until they were both stripped and then he wrapped his arms around her once again and began kissing her neck. Brennan sighed indulgently as Booth picked her up and laid her on the bed, his mouth never leaving her skin. His hands ran over the outer skin of her thighs, working her over as he savored the feel of her pale skin under his hands.

"So soft." He murmured. "Always so soft." He covered her in kisses, wanting to make whatever was bothering her disappear. She relished them all, enjoying the sensation of his mouth traveling over her body. She gasped as his mouth found her breast, his tongue laving the pink peak before switching to the other side.

"Booth." She moaned, her nails nipping at his flesh as she arched into him, grinding into his erection and causing him to moan against her chest. "Make love to me." She whispered her plea, wanting to feel their connection, to trust that they were not only right for one another but perfect together. Booth understood what she needed immediately and she was grateful for it. He slipped into her gently and filled her slowly. An opened mouth kiss caught his sigh of pleasure at feeling her silky warmth around him.

"God, I love being inside you." He groaned. "You're perfect. Made for me." He mumbled against her skin.

"Yes." She moaned softly as he picked up his steady pace. "Oh, yes."

"I love you." He murmured as he kissed his way up her neck. "Every. Single. Part. Of you."

"Mmm. I love you too." She added with a kiss to his shoulder.

"You're the only one, Bones." He practically bit back the words in self-restraint, but they were true and Brennan felt them resonate deep like thunder in her core. "The only one…" He repeated as he thrust into her again and again, building a fire between them that was threatening to explode.

"Booth!" She cried, her nails digging deeper into his shoulders as she felt herself getting pulled into her orgasm. She tried to fight it, desperate to stay in this place with him as long as she could.

"Open your eyes." Booth begged. She opened them at his command. A shared look, black meeting blue, was all it took to send them both hurtling through the oblivion, trembling in each other's arms as they clung to each other for purchase.

As Booth collapsed next to her, Brennan knew what she wanted. She wanted to feel like this for the rest of her life: loved, owned, tied to another person in every possible way. It was irrational and it was sudden, but like all of her choices in life, once she made up her mind, there was no going back.

"Booth?" She said quietly, unsure if this was the proper time and place to have this conversation.

"Hmm? He turned on his side and propped himself up on elbow.

"I've been thinking about zombies." She started and she knew that he was going to be confused. His silence told her to keep explaining. "After we watched those movies, I went back and read more about apocalypse myths."

"Of course you did." He deadpanned.

"And their point is to remind people to live for the moment. To never forget that this life is temporary and that we shouldn't take anything for granted."

"Okay." He said, still unsure of where she was going with this.

"I've been taking you for granted." She admitted quietly.

That got Booth to sit up.

"What? Bones… no!" He said, disagreeing with that notion entirely.

"I was so happy and content in our situation that I never stopped to think that you might want more. That you might not be fulfilled by this arrangement."

"Arrangement? Bones, what are you talking about?"

"For as long as I've known you, you've wanted a traditional life. You've wanted a wife and a family." Booth rolled his eyes, fully aware of where this conversation was heading but she kept talking. "You believe in those things and your religion supports them." She explained. "And for the past week, I've been wondering how we've been together for the past year without any of that ever being brought up."

"Look at me." Booth commanded. "I love you." He said seriously. "You, Bones. I want you just the way you are. I don't need a wife, I need you." He said. "You don't believe in marriage. That's fine with me. I don't care as long as I get to come home to you."

The timer from the oven cut through their conversation and it took both of them a moment to remember why it was going off in the first place. Brennan waited a second and when Booth didn't get up, she slid off the bed and put on her robe, hurrying into the kitchen to turn off the offending noise and the oven.

When she came back to the bedroom, Booth had put on his boxers and was sitting on the edge of the bed. She watched him for a moment, wondering what could possibly be going through his mind that had presented such a curious expression on his face. Finally, she had to know.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked as she made her way towards the bed and sat down next to him.

"This is why you've been so internal this week? You thought I wasn't happy?" He clarified.

"No. I know you're happy."

"I am." He agreed. "Are you?"

"Yes." She assured him. "I'm very happy." She ran her hand across his shoulders in comfort. "But why have we never talked about marriage?" She asked.

"You don't believe in it." Booth shrugged. "I knew that going in. You like your independence and I love that about you." He said honestly. "It was never about marriage with me, Bones. It was about the relationship. Having someone beside you who completes you, makes you whole, fights for you and drives you crazy." He sighed. "You are all of those things and more."

"What about God?" She asked.

"I hate to break it to you, Bones, but you're not the first woman that I've ever lived with." He reminded her. "I'm happy, okay?" He assured her. "I'm happier than I have ever been in my entire life and it's because of you."

"So you don't want to get married?" She said, the thought still seeming incongruous with his previous beliefs.

"I'm saying that marriage isn't the point, Bones, okay? As long as we're both happy, that's all I've ever wanted."

"So if the world ended tomorrow and you never got married, it wouldn't bother you?" She questioned.

"No." He said a little too quickly for her liking. Brennan stood up.

"Well it would bother me." She admitted. Booth did a double take as he looked up at his partner standing in front of him, her arms crossed in a huff.

"What?" He asked, taken completely aback by her statement.

"You have given up everything to be in this relationship with me. Your beliefs, your idea of what you wanted out of life." She pointed out. "And I haven't given up anything. Not really. I've gotten everything that I've ever wanted from you. That bothers me."

"Bones, you have given me more than you will ever know." Booth promised her.

"Not good enough." She said, her mind made up. "I want to give you this. I want to get married." She said stubbornly.

"Bones, we are not getting married because you want to win some ridiculous competition that you've created in your head." Booth said.

"I'm serious, Booth. I want to get married. If the world ended tomorrow and I hadn't given you that, I would never forgive myself."

"Well, I'm sorry but you don't get to just decide that we're getting married because we watched a zombie movie together." Booth pointed out.

"You don't want to marry me?" She asked, her eyes growing wide at the thought.

"Of course I do but that's not the..."

"So what's the problem?" She asked. He groaned in frustration at her question.

"You've spent the last seven years telling me you didn't believe in marriage. I'm sorry if I find the sudden switch a little mind-boggling." He said.

"You've spent the last seven years telling me that marriage and true love were the most important things in life. You can understand my confusion." She volleyed his statement right back to him.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" He wanted to know. "Do you only hold onto a decision until someone agrees with you and then you change your mind?"

"Maybe you made a convincing argument." She replied, her arms still defiantly across her chest. "Maybe, I actually like the idea of being your wife, of being connected to you in every way." Booth sighed again, but then paused to look at her. She was serious and he saw it for the first time.

"You're being serious." He realized. She nodded. "You really want this?" He asked.

"I really do." She answered.

"Because if we do this, it's going to be forever." He promised.

"And it isn't now?" Booth was clearly not expecting that retort because he looked completely bowled over by her come back. "Getting married isn't going to change our relationship, Booth. I thought that it would, but now I know that it won't." She pointed out. "It's not going to make me more obedient or get you to stop leaving your clothes on the floor. We are who we are. We've already committed to each other for the rest of our lives. Why not make it official? Especially when I know that it will make you happy."

"I am happy."

"Okay, it will make you happier_."_ She edited her previous statement.

"Yes, but will it make you happier? I don't want you to regret this decision later." Booth said.

"I don't do that." She said seriously. Booth stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and chuckling.

"No. I guess you don't." He agreed on that much. Brennan took a moment to analyze his tense body. She sighed, knowing that she had thrown this at him unexpectedly. If he had proposed out of nowhere, she would need time to consider it.

"Will you at least think about it?" Brennan requested.

"Are you kidding? I won't be able to think about anything else." Booth said.

"Then let's think about it over dinner. I'm starving." She said as she headed for the closet to find some proper clothes.

OOOOO

An hour later, they were still 'discussing'.

"I'm sorry." Booth set down his fork and gave his full attention to the insane woman across from him who claimed to be his partner. "But no matter how hard I try, I cannot see you wearing white and walking down a church aisle. I just can't see it." Brennan scrunched up her nose at the idea.

"No." She agreed. "I was thinking the court house." She said. "Oh, and speaking of the court house, if we did get married, I wouldn't change my name." She added.

"No." Booth approved of that decision at least. She was Dr. Temperance Brennan and the thought of her being known as anything else was disconcerting.

"So we would just need rings and witnesses." Brennan grabbed the nearest pad of paper and started compiling a list. Booth reached for his wine. "I'd have to set up a meeting with my accountant. We would need to add your name to my bank accounts." Booth choked.

"Bank accounts?" Booth coughed as he set his glass down on the table.

"Yes. And I might have to see my lawyer. I don't think that my will needs to be changed just because our relationship status has, but I'll double check."

"Bones, can we just stop for a second?" Booth requested as he put his hand over her pen. She set it down and looked at him. He was fully aware that they sometime in the past ten minutes they had crossed the border between the hypothetical and actually planning their wedding. "Are we really doing this?" He asked her seriously, wanting to know. "Are we getting married?" The phrase felt foreign on his tongue but something within him leaped at the idea.

"Only if you want to." She said quickly and he could see the fear in her eyes that he would say no. "And you should take your time until you know for sure because it's a big decision."

"You really think I wouldn't take this seriously?" He asked.

"I just…I don't want this to be yet another thing that you just let me have." She said, concerned. "I know you, Booth, you would do anything to make me happy." She said.

"You make that sound like it's a bad thing." Booth noticed.

"It is if you're not happy with me." She replied.

"What if making you happy makes me happy?" He wanted to know. "What if I'm never happier than when I can make you smile?"

"Booth..." She muttered, frustrated that he was missing the point she was trying to make.

"I'm serious, Bones." He cut her off and motioned for her to come over to his side of the table. She refused for a moment but then he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap, wanting to be close to her for what he was about to say.

"Yes, this took me by surprise, but you have turned my world upside down every single day since the day we met so I don't know why today should be an exception." She smiled guiltily and he chuckled. "Don't worry. I love you for it." He added.

"I'm glad." She said seriously.

"Look, I know that you are logical and you want to make this just another item on your to-do list but it's my responsibility in this partnership to give us some romantic perspective." He said as he took her hand in his. "So stop and take a moment to think about where we started." He said, his voice already tinged with nostalgia.

"The classroom at American?" She smiled as the memory came back instantly.

"I told you it was fate." Booth smiled victoriously.

"No, you asked if I believed in fate. And I answered truthfully that I did not."

"Well, look at everything we've been through since that moment, okay?" He said. "I mean, my entire life has changed since I met you." Brennan smiled at the sweet statement. "And hey, most of it was for the better." He added with a smirk. She scoffed and slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

"You aren't exactly easy to deal with either." She pointed out.

"But we're still here." He pointed out.

"Yes we are." She smiled proudly, fully aware of how much work it took to get to where they were.

"And, I suppose that if we can survive all that, I think we can survive just about anything together, don't you?" Brennan smiled.

"Even the end of the world?"

"Especially the end of the world." Booth said. "But we've already established that." He took a deep breath and looked down his partner's left hand, which was still resting comfortably in his. "So what do you think, Dr. Brennan?" He asked. "Til death, or zombies, do us part?" She grinned. "It's going to be a challenge."

"I love a challenge." She replied gamely. Booth nodded once and slipped out from underneath her, leaving her on the kitchen chair as he headed towards the bedroom. "Where are you going?" She called after him.

"Be patient." He yelled back and she rolled her eyes.

"We were kind of in the middle of something here." She reminded him as he returned.

"I know." He nodded. "Which is why I wanted to do this right." He got down on one knee in front of her and opened a small box. "This was my grandmother's." He said as he pulled the ring out of the box and held it up for her to examine. "Pops gave it to me just after he met you. He had a feeling that this might happen." Brennan chuckled, surprisingly moved by the gesture. "So, Temperance Brennan," he smiled "Bones," he corrected himself because it just felt better, "will you marry me?"

"Yes." She said with all of the solemnity a woman can muster while she's trying not to cry. She pulled him up from his knee and they kissed until he couldn't breathe. When they finally broke away, Booth wiped away the few stray tears that had made their way down her cheeks with his thumb.

"See? We _can_ do traditional from time to time." He said, proud of them for stealing a rare, normal moment. She laughed and she looked back down at the ring on her finger. "Does it fit? I hope it works until we can get you one of your own." Booth commented.

"No!" She cried as she pulled her hand back, protecting the ring. "I mean, yes, it fits but it's just so…." She said as she admired it again. "Can't I keep this one?" She asked a little more rationally.

"Yes." Booth laughed. "You can." She grinned and kissed him one more time.

"Thank you."

"So are you happy now?" He asked, trying to feign frustration despite the wide grin currently plastered on his face.

"Very." She beamed. "Are you happy too?" She asked.

"You and me, together, until the end of the world?" Booth smiled. "What's not to love about that?" He asked.

"The zombies." Brennan answered dryly. Booth just chuckled and pulled her in for another long kiss. He knew that together they could survive just about anything.

Even each other.


End file.
